No Más, Trump Tells Spain

One of our favorite columns was by R. Emmett Tyrell, Jr., when France denied its airspace for an American raid on Libya. America ought to ignore the prohibition and fly over France in a route that would, Tyrell offered, take our warplanes over each of the American wartime cemeteries. It would be a good strategy today when countries as diverse as Britain and Spain restrict their facilities for American planes seeking to liberate Iran. President Trump, for his part, is vowing to “cut off all dealing” with Spain after Madrid barred the American military from using some joint bases for strikes against the Islamic Republic. “We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain,” Mr. Trump vowed during a parley with Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany. “We don’t want anything to do with Spain.” Mr. Trump is none too happy with Great Britain, for that matter.“This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with,” Mr. Trump lamented of the current occupant at 10 Downing Street, Sir Keir Starmer. The feckless premier had initially barred America from using the naval base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean for strikes on Iran. “We all remember the mistakes of Iraq, and we have learned those lessons,” Sir Keir sniffed. “Any U.K. actions must always have a lawful basis and a viable thought-through plan.”Though Sir Keir later relented, Mr. Trump professed to be stunned by the traversal by what had long been a trusted ally. “That’s probably never happened between our countries before,” Mr. Trump mused. “It sounds like he was worried about the legality.” Today the president reflected that Britain had been “very, very uncooperative with that stupid island that they have,” referring to Diego Garcia. Spain’s failure to support the American démarche had been “terrible,” Mr. Trump added, and “I’m not happy with the UK either.” He told reporters at the Oval Office, regarding “that island that you read about,” it has “taken three or four days to work out where we can land.” The commander in chief confided “it would have been much more convenient landing there as opposed to flying many extra hours. We are very surprised.”It seems the leftist leaders at both London and Madrid fell prey to pettifoggery instead of satisfying their obligations as allies of America. The Spanish defense minister, Margarita Robles, averred that American forces at the Morón de la Frontera and Rota bases will need to “operate within the framework of international law.” As if that is in doubt. She added, too, that the bases will supply no support “except if it is necessary from a humanitarian perspective.”This stripe of ingratitude was all too common during the Cold War, when America shouldered the burden of defending the Continent from the Soviet menace while the Europeans let their armies atrophy. So Spain’s uncooperative attitude is hardly surprising. Sir Keir’s intransigence, though, marks a breach in the close ties that have been a hallmark of Anglo-American relations since at least World War I, even if the premier reversed course. The keenness of Mr. Tyrell’s point when the French sought to bar America’s warplanes was to underscore the sacrifices made by the Yanks to preserve Europe’s freedom. More than 100,000 U.S. troops died in World War I repelling Germany from France. More than 250,000 Yanks died to defeat Hitler’s and Mussolini’s regimes. The least Europe can do now, it seems, is to stand aside and let American forces get the job done once again, this time against Iran.

No Más, Trump Tells Spain

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